It has been a bit busy around here. Not as bad as last
month, though. The new job has settled in, and I have more time to do my regular
programming efforts. Win 98 finally arrives, and I have had some more time to play with IE
4.0. We are rolling out a new version our software to about 500 users. Stick around and
see what is going on at Scott's Site.

2400 Baud

Yes, you read that right 2400 (2.4) baud. My phone
company, Southwestern Bell, only
guarantees 2400 baud performance for a residential phone line. Let's start from the
beginning. I ordered a 2nd phone line a about 3 months ago. This was going to be for my
computer and access to the Internet, which I clearly told the salesperson. I have
consistently been getting connection speeds of 26.4 with the line since it was installed.
This didn't bother me too much, but I was connecting reliably at 28.8 with my regular home
line (1st line) at least 4 out of 5 times. I didn't give it a lot of thought, and lived
with the mild performance penalty.

A few weeks ago my connection speeds were getting worse.
I was frequently getting 14.4, 19.2, and 21.0 speeds. This was causing me to redial 2 or 3
times just to get a 26.4 connection. This line does not include unlimited local calls, and
it was starting to bother me that these redials could start increasing my phone bill. Then
a couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday, my connection speeds were between 7.2 (yes, 7200
baud) and 14.4. Over a dozen calls in one day resulting in nothing better than 16.4, and 4
incomplete connections. This was unacceptable performance.

So I called SWB. They said all they could guarantee was
2400 baud performance. I was furious. SWB advertises on radio and television getting a
second phone line for a computer to access the Internet. Yet they only guarantee 2400 baud
performance. I was not told this when I signed up for the second line. Also, SWB is an
Internet Service Provider (ISP). I wonder how they can provide Internet access at a
guaranteed speed of only 2400 baud.

By the way, on that same Saturday, I could plug my modem
into my 1st phone line and connect at 28.8. Since the wiring in my house is new, I assume
there is a problem with Southwestern Bell's lines. I cannot see the benefit of getting a
2nd phone line that gets worse performance than my 1st line. I am getting ready to ask for
all my money back on the second line. It is not worth it.

So what am I to do for a phone line for my computer? I
complained to SWB they are a monopoly, and I cannot get local service from anyone else.
They say they are not a monopoly, but won't tell me who I can get local service from. So I
check the phone book (what SWB told me to do) , and none of the phone companies offer
local residential service. Are they a monopoly or not? They tell me no, but I
can't find anyone else. It sounds like a monopoly to me.

SWB offers a 2nd residential phone line for $8.45 or
$13.53 per month for my house. For 8.45 you get 25 phone calls per month, and then $0.08
per call. For $13.53 I would get unlimited local calling. There is also a one time
installation fee of $55. To compare apples to apples... SWB offers unlimited Internet
access for $19.95 per month.

Bottom line: $33.90 per month for unlimited 2400 baud
(2.4K) access to the Internet, with a one-time investment of $55.

The next step up, as far as I can see, is ISDN. Let's
look at that. SWB offers ISDN telephone service for Between $62.26 and $98.90 per month.
(I will assume the $98.90 allows unlimited calling.) Of course, there is a one-time setup
fee of $618 which includes DigiLine Connection, Inside Wiring, Adrant
XRT Unit [terminal adapter], and XRT Install & cable. If I sign a two
year contract, they will wave the DigiLine Installation of $250. For comparison,
let's assume that I might not want this service for two years, or might move, that brings
the one-time setup fee to $868. As an ISP, SWB changes $29.95 per month for a 64K
connection, $49.95 per month for 128K. Both are for unlimited access.

Bottom line: $128.85 per month for unlimited 64K access
to the Internet, with a one-time investment of $868.

Is there no in between. I mean really, why should I have
to pay over a hundred dollars a month to access the Internet reliably at speeds above 2400
baud? Does this bother anyone else? Let me know.

Windows 98 (99 anyone)

Win 98 finally arrives. Last month I told you about the
mishap with my Win 98 beta disc. Well I ordered a replacement, and the service
representative couldn't understand that I only needed the Memphis (Win 98 beta) disc. She
insisted on sending me an entire replacement shipment. She said they would go out 2nd day
air. After 3 1/2 weeks I called back, and they told me they didn't have all the discs,
some were on backorder. The entire order was held for the discs on back order. To shorten
a long story, I got them to send just the Memphis disc.

Well I did not fair well with Win 98. It installed it on
my test machine fine, but no network. I only looked at it for a few minutes, and could not
figure out why Win 98 was unable to find my network. Then I had to reload the machine with
Win 95 to for a testing an SMS push of a package I built. So Win 98 testing gets put on
the back burner again.

Sorry. I will try again to load Win 98 as the holidays
roll around. I am too busy with development efforts and fielding problems with rolling out
a client server application to over 500 users in five locations countrywide. Not fun.

Building Software Packages

We use a development tool from Oracle called Express
Objects for our client server application. Oracle does not provide any way for us to
distribute the software across our LAN, short of sharing the installations files from the
CD. So we build a distribution package ourselves.

In the past we used WinINSTALL. WinINSTALL is very good
at capturing your environment before and after you setup a computer, and builds a package
that can be pushed across the LAN. However, WinINSTALL has giving us a lot o grief when it
comes to build versions. These are incremental upgrades to WinINSTALL to fix
bugs. Our company has many versions in use, and it would be a monumental task to get
everyone to upgrade their distributions to the same build version. We need build 19, but
many applications are still using build 15. The problem arises when WinINSTALL runs on the
client, it installs itself first. This self install fails when conflicting build versions
are sent to a single workstation.

We briefly looked at Install Shield. Install Shield is
very robust, but it does not have a capture facility. Also Install Shield is a language in
itself, and the learning curve is a bit steep for the time frames we deal with here. If
you have the time and patience to learn and use Install Shield I would highly recommend
it. If you are not a heavy programmer, and are repackaging software for any reason, I
would look elsewhere.

In comes Wise. Wise is a product that is similar to
WinINSTALL. It has a capture facility (you need the Enterprise edition to get the capture
capability), and is like Install Shield in creating a single self-extracting executable.
No runtime libraries loaded to the client to cause problems, like WinINSTALL. I was able
to build a first draft package in a couple of hours. In fact, it almost made it to
production. But we decided to enhance the load to remove older versions of our software.
Objects is not very forgiving with multiple versions of the client
software on one workstation. WinINSTALL does not offer such a feature. In fact, we were
able to put in conditional statements in Wise that would only delete the old software if
it was there. We wouldn't want the install to fail for new workstations when the old
software is not found.

Wise has proved reasonably successful. We still need to
test a couple of things, but it looks pretty reliable so far. The only problems we are
having so far is the load Wise built asks to reboot the workstation. We did not specify
this when building the load, and have not been able to figure out how to stop it. Our
software does not need to reboot the computer. Also, we are having conflicts with the
Oracle software and a file CTL3D.DLL. This file is installed in the WINNT\SYSTEM directory
on Win NT 4.0 workstations. When we run our application we are getting error messages
about CTL3D.DLL and CTL3DV2.DLL. The second file we don't even use. I don't know why it is
even being asked for. Deleting CTL3DV2.DLL solves the problem sometimes. Other times we
have to delete stray copies of either of the files in directories other than the
WINNT\SYSTEM. Go figure why the wrong DLL is being called.

Anyway, if you are looking for a package that can make
fast, customizable, and reliable installation programs for pushing across a LAN or even to
execute or download over the Internet, I give Wise a Highly recommended.

Site Of The Month

This months Scott's
Site Award goes to Jaws - The Home Page. You
may be thinking I have lost my mind on this one. Not really. I have been tinkering with
web pages for a little over a year. Only for the last three or four months have I been
serious. I have a personal web site (you are reading it), and have tried to get it to look
professional. (At least the pages that are not about gaming.)

I think I am doing a decent job, but maybe you can tell me otherwise. Jake Gove is doing the same
thing, and has his own personal web site. Jake has taken a topic he feels strongly about,
and built a very professional web site around it. Since his site is not a business site,
he can do whatever he wants, yet Jake has done a remarkable job of maintaining focus, and
attention to detail that is rare in personal sites. Jake has the best personal web site I
have seen yet. Congratulations, Jake. It is the most professional looking personal sites I
have ever seen, and looks better than many professional sites.

If you know of a personal web site doing an outstanding
job, let me know. I would love to give a Scott's
Site Award to another personal site.

Game of the Month

This is easy. Age of Empires. This is Microsoft's latest
real-time strategy game. If you are a fan of C&C, or Red Alert, then look toward Dark
Reign. If you are a fan of Warcraft, then this is the best game in town, bar none. Highest
recommendation.

Conclusion

Well that about does it this month. Next month I will
try to have more info about Win 98, but I cannot make any promises. The holidays are upon
us, and I may have the January edition out late. It looks like I will be going in for more
sinus surgery in January too. Keep in touch.